by Téa Cooper
Matilda pulled away from him and sat up. What was he saying? That he would not marry Eliza and they could live happily together at The Gate? Happily, but under what arrangement? Had nothing changed? She stared into the flickering flames, searching, searching for an answer to her question. She heard the scuffling of his boots as he moved away and almost jumped with surprise when she turned to find him kneeling next to her, his hand outstretched.
‘Matilda, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?’
His words echoed in the cave, and in the background she thought she heard the gentle murmur of voices, past and present, from those whose handprints lined the walls.
‘Kit, I can’t.’
The hands stirred gently in the fading light, and an errant breeze kissed her cheek. She turned to him.
His gaze followed her hand as she reached into her pocket and brought out the crushed envelope. ‘Circumstances have changed since I left The Gate.’
A look of disappointment and confusion flashed across his handsome face. Matilda regretted her cruelty, but she had to know. Did he love her for herself? ‘The picture you paint of our life is delightful, but it turns out the situation is not quite as either of us imagined.’
She handed him the envelope. He ran his fingers over the smudged writing and stared at her.
‘It is from Richard Bainbridge.’
‘Yes, it is,’ she said, trying for a little smile, so she could soothe the blow she feared she would have to deliver. ‘As happy as I would be to see you prove the colonial snobs of the squattocracy wrong, I don’t come empty-handed. Open it.’
Kit pulled the paper from the envelope and twisted it towards the flames. The writing would be difficult to decipher. The dampness of her riding breeches had smudged the neat, copperplate hand, but as a look of incredulity crossed his face, she knew that he had managed to make sense of the watery words.
‘Richard is talking about your family property, near Bathurst.’
She nodded. ‘It would seem I have some decisions to make, for there is a large possibility I am sitting on a fortune.’
He folded the paper and put it carefully back in the envelope and handed it back to her. Her heart dared to lift as the shadow of uncertainty receded. Still, she had to hear it from his lips.
‘Matilda, I asked you for your hand in marriage. I don’t need a piece of paper, a promise of a dowry, or anything else to sweeten the deal. I just want you.’
His searching, black eyes seeming to stare into her very soul. For a long moment, he paused and then softly said, ‘I cannot envisage a life without you in it, Matilda. Wealth, heritage, connections, society—all are inconsequential. When I turned my back on Sydney and returned to Wollombi, I did it knowing I could not live out my life without you by my side. The rest means nothing.’
Kit pulled her closer into the security of his embrace and cupped her face in his hand. He gently kissed away the single tear that had spilt down her cheek. ‘You will be my wife. We will be together. We love each other. Nothing else is important.’
He captured her lips in a tender kiss and then smiled. This was not a half-hearted tug at the corner of his lips but a real smile, one that lifted her spirits and made her heart sing.
‘We love each other,’ Matilda murmured, the truth of her words wrapping itself around her heart. ‘Yes, I will honour you by becoming your wife.’
A few hours ago, she had believed her dreams shattered—now the future beckoned. It was a future filled with promise and, most of all, with love.
Kit’s large warm hand enfolded hers and he said, ‘I think it is time we went home.’
THE END
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ISBN: 9780857990600
Title: Matilda’s Freedom
Copyright © 2013 by Téa Cooper
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) Limited, Locked Bag 7002, Chatswood D.C. NSW, Australia, 2067.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention. ® and ™ are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises Limited and are used under license to the Publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in Australia, New Zealand, the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries.
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